Auckland Notes

Radio Record, Volume VI, Issue 13, 7 October 1932, Page 5

Auckland Notes

By

Neutron

HE past week has been rather a thin one so far as LYA’s concert programmes are concerned. ‘When wrestling finished early on Monday there were records to follow. Tuesday Was a record evening. Wednesday had two artists supplying the concert programme, and just as two swallows don’t make a summer, two artists, however good, don’t fill out a varied concert programme. Thursday gave us a brilliant orchestral and choral programme, and Friday evening was varied and tuneful, but taken by and large there was a notable lack of variety in the week’s fare. The Dominion’s largest city can surely do far better than that. ® % * AFTER this little kick it is fair to add that Vincent Aspey’s violin solos on Wednesday left little to be desired. They were tuneful, capably presented, and well worth hearing. Gwladys Edwardes, soprano, presented a number of Coleridge-Taylor songs and did full justice to the negro composer. With a background of contrast and a spice of humour, it could have been an enjoyable evening. The questionnaire and record preference? ‘Why, this is the cause of it-insufficiently varied programmes.

MBS. A. M. MANN told listeners that "there are few subjects that deserve greater consideration by man than cooking." The lady knew her subject, but isn’t it possible that there may be a few benighted souls who don’t have gas stoves? There may even be some listeners out in the wilderness who still use antediluvian wood stoves. To such, "Cook with No. 7 Regulo!" would sound like a decree of Nero in the original Latin, Mrs. Mann’s useful talks would win her many more friends if this little fact were recognised. pe] % mt "THURSDAY evening’s relay of the Bohemian Orchestra and Commercial Travellers’ Choir concert was thoroughly enjoyable. The orchestra’s Wagnerian selections were brilliant, and he must have been a captious listener who did not enjdy them. There was a time down Bay of Plenty when the annual Travellers’ concert for charity was the musical event of the year. It is fourteen years since last I heard one of these, but the "Knights of the Road" seem as tuneful as ever. Under the baton of Mr. Harry Woolley, their choir, especially in several sea chanties and "The Keys of Heaven," was extraordin- arily good. Some choral singing does not come over too well, but this did. Every word was clear. The relays of the Bohemian Orchestra concerts have been very welcome features of the present season, and it is interesting to note that ‘broadcasting does not seem to damage the attendances. It is an undoubted fact that broadcasting did much to put wrestling firmly on the map up here, and it appears to be a sound deduction that any combination that really has "the goods" will benefit rather than suffer by broadcasting. & S ) Mack words put over from 1YA at one time sounded rather like @ cross, between Chinese and Zulu, with a.

etiteen nen dash of Pushtu thrown in for full measure. All that is changed,-and Mr. Culford Bell now looks almost any Maori word full in the = face, secures a Boston Crab, and gets 2 submission fall the first round. There is just one’ amendment that could be desired, Paeroa is not "Pie-ro-er"’ with heavy emphasis on the "ro," nor should the scene of the recent earthquake receive similar unkind treatment. Wairoa has had 2 sufficiently tough time without adding insult to injury. And, by the same token, while I’m being nasty, why should poor Tom Bowling be attributed to poor Tom Didbin? Faith, he’s bin did 2 long time, but he’s still Thomas Dibdin to those many who love his old sea songs. But just the same, 1YA’s senior announcer is-coming along fine with his %aori, and even if he says a thing wroulg, as all of us do occasionally, he says it with great clearness. aM eB (CAPTAIN R. B. FALCON’S "NorthWest Frontier" talk from 1YA on Wednesday was decidedly interesting. In Auckland we have a Khyber Pass, on which Captain Cook looks down. It is the haunt of the Lion and the approach to one of ‘his Majesty’s guesthouses, but few of us knew how to say the highway’s name. You say Khyber

Tass, 1b Seems, AS One In the last stages of a catarrhal affliction, trying to clear his throat. Try that hold on the piano, as Gordon Hutter says, and you have Khyber Pass as pronounced by the residents of India’s unrestful North-West corner, Our announcers who haye only such trifles as Paekakariki to whisper don’t know how well off they are. The man behind the mike in India must certainly stand up to his neck in a drain all day so that he has a sufficiently bad cold to be able to say the names correctly in the news session, z D4 * "THE law is sometimes an ass, but when expounded by Mr. Julius Hogben, it is never dull. His Friday tall from 1YA, "Crimes of the Good Old Times," was the highlight last week. It is a safe bet that no one who tuned in to him twisted the dial till after he'd finished. I always thought the expression to "sock" a person had its origin in the good old Irish custom of a stone in a sock, but it appears ‘"ham-socken" Was @ recognised Anglo-Saxon sport, although it is called assault and battery to-day. Quoting from "The Mirror of Justice," a legal text-book of Saxon times, compiled by an enterprising fishmonger of the period, the speaker said Alfred hanged 44 judges for bad decisions. Mr.. Hogben then was guilty of a base innuendo, the one black spot of the lecture. He said one of the Richards hanged some of his judges and banished the rest to Ireland, and he left his hearers to judge which was ths worse fate! Trial by battle was a due process of law down to last century, it seems. Under‘it the accused took an oath against enchantment, entered a 60ft. square at sun-up, and if he could hold this till star-rise against his accuser he washeld not guilty. In 1815 a criminal with the gallows ahead demanded ixim by battle, The

Crown Prosecutor who wished to 2 not fight, was, so to speak, in the so the law was repealed three years later. All this and more, compounded, with real humour, provided a delightfics quarter-hour. ‘ ™ * * AN instance of the senseless opposia tion to "Made in New Zealand® was given by Mr. A. G. Thomas in his further ‘talk on "Home Industries," from 1YA, After looking at a timber mill and getting, and putting over, z capital recipe for-of all things-a real omelette from the man who made the sawdust, the lecturer wandered into 2 one-man factory in the heart of the city. The proprietor was hand-forging knives for butchers and shoemakers, He is one of the very few exponents of this ancient craft left in the world. During the war Sheffield was mechanised, The best butchers’ knives, in spite of mot ern machinery, must be made by hand, so when the war ended and things were slack, the old hand craftsmen of Sheffield decided that their services could; be best used in the great meat-exporé’ countries. So some went to Argentina,’ some to Australia, and this particulay man came to New Zealand. Foolishly; as it proved; he branded his knives "Made in New Zealand." The prejudice against the local article proved tod strong, and the Sheffield man regretted, that he had come here. In despair he. took off the local brand, and it wor like a charm. Butchers discove how good the knives were, and they sold. "Even a first-class craftsman, straight from Sheffield, dare not stamy his wares ‘Made in New Zealand !?% the lecturer stated.